What the Quran Says about Hijab or
Veil!

“Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze
and guard their modesty: that will make for greater purity for
them: and Allah is well acquainted with all that they do.” [Q
24:30]

“And say to the believing women that they should lower their
gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their
beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof;
that they should draw their veils over their bosoms except to
their husbands, their fathers, their husbands’ fathers, their
sons, their husbands’ sons, their brothers or their brothers’
sons, or their sisters’ sons, or their women, or the slaves whom
their right hands possess, or male servants free of physical
needs, or small children who have no sense of the shame of sex;
and that they should not strike their feet in order to draw
attention to their hidden ornaments. And O ye Believers! Turn ye
all together towards Allah, that ye may attain Bliss.” [Q 24:31]

I understand that it was necessary for Allah to make such rules,
as, in His judgment, were necessary to regulate the uncivilized
social behavior of a people Muhammad and his companions were going
to rule once Allah’s mission to establish Islam in the Arabian
Peninsula was accomplished. But what about those rules through which
He had sought to instill a sense of purity and modesty in Muslim men
and women? Let us briefly go over those rules.

Avoiding eye contact and covering sexual organs appropriately are
two of the ways through which, Allah believes, both Muslim men and
women can avoid commission of adultery or fornication among them. It
was this knowledge of human behavior that had prompted Allah to ask
both Muslim men and women to lower their gaze, when they find
themselves face to face with strangers. He prohibited women from
‘displaying her figure or appear in undress except before their
husbands, near relatives who would be living in the same house, and
with whom a certain amount of negligee is permissible.’[1]
He has also asked them not to display their ornaments[2]
before anyone, but the men mentioned in the above verse, in order to
protect themselves from their lustful desire.

Believing that what Allah had thought were the appropriate
measures for preventing Muslims from committing adultery or
fornication, we wonder why He asked only the women to cover their
bosoms and to refrain from displaying their beauty before none, but
their husbands and close relatives? Why He asked them to hide their
ornaments and also not to strike their feet in order not to avoid
drawing strange men’s attention to them? Why He wants women to draw
their veils over their bosoms, while requiring strange men not to
look up, and gaze at them?

Veil
worn by Muslim women is a highly sensitive and contentious issue.
The Western world does not understand why Muslim women should cover
themselves from head to toe, and continue to suffer discomfort,
among others, in humid and fetid climate. Muslims counter that
wearing of veil is not at all uncomfortable for their women and that
it is an obligation that Allah has imposed on them so that they may
be able to maintain their physical and spiritual purity. Many Muslim
women claim that covering their bodies with burqa liberates them,
and enhances their sense of safety. They also contend that when the
Western world does not find any problem with the Christian nuns
covering themselves up with veil, why it should feel concerned with
the Muslim women wearing the same attire!

A complex issue, such as the wearing of veil by the Muslim women,
calls for a detailed discussion. I, therefore, wish to do exactly
the same here by relying on other statements of the Quran that are
connected with the subject of veil. But before doing that, I must
point out an important fact, it being: three different words have
been used in the Quran to describe what Muslim women need to do to
protect themselves from the prying eyes and assault of strange men.
These words are: “khimar,” “hijab” and “jilbab.”

We find the word “khimar” in verse 24:31, quoted above. Here are
two other verses with the words “hijab” and “jilbab” in them:

“O ye who believe!
Enter not the Prophet’s house, - until leave is given to you, -
for a meal, (and then) not (so early as) to wait for its
preparation: but when ye are invited, enter; and when ye have
taken your meal, disperse, without seeking familiar talk. Such (behaviour)
annoys the Prophet: he is ashamed to dismiss you, but Allah is not
ashamed (to tell you) the truth.
And when ye ask (his ladies) for anything ye want, ask them from
before a screen {hijab}: that makes for greater purity for your
hearts and theirs. Nor is it right for you that ye should annoy
Allah’s Apostle, or that ye should marry his widows after him at
any time. Truly such a thing is in Allah’s sight an enormity.”[3]

“O Prophet! Tell thy
wives and daughters, and the believing women, that they should
cast their outer garments {jilbab} over their persons (when
abroad): that is most convenient, that they should be known (as
such) and not molested. And Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most
Merciful.”[4]

To understand the true implications of the above and other
verses, I must also note that the revelation of each of the Quran’s
verses had a reason, and an occasion. Accordingly, verse 33:53 was
revealed when Muhammad was celebrating his success at acquiring
Zainab, the divorced wife of his adopted son Zaid, through a grand
reception he had arranged at his home in Medina.[5]

The reception, held by Muhammad, to celebrate an event that the
Pagans considered to be highly licentious and therefore harmful to,
and contagious for, their social order, brings to light one of his
hitherto hidden characteristics, it being: though he had taken a
multiple of women in his wedlock, he is not reported to have ever
thrown a party to welcome any one of them to his harem. The strange
behavior he displayed in case of Zainab was representative of a
sadistic pleasure he derived from the successes he achieved through
manipulations and illegal and unethical maneuvers he is known to
have used throughout his life to fulfill his desires, goals and
ambitions.

What had followed after Muhammad’s invited guests arrived at his
home is clearly mentioned in verse 33:53. This verse came to him
from a Book that Allah had written down, and preserved in
Luh-e-mahfooz,[6]
long before He began the process of creating the Universe and
everything it contains. Allah’s Plan called for Muhammad’s guest to
arrive at his home before the time of feast not only to satisfy
their hunger, but also to have a glimpse of his new, but unwed,
wife. Their early arrival caused Muhammad a serious problem: though
he wished to ‘spend’ with Zainab – his life-long passion - as much
time as was possible for him, the early arrival of his guests forced
him to come out of her cabin to give them company. And, he did not
like this at all and became angry at them.

Again, all the guests did not leave his home immediately after
partaking of their meal; instead, three of them became engrossed in
a conversation, thus delaying their departure.[7]
Since Muhammad could not leave them to themselves, he failed to
return to Zainab at the height of his craving for her. This made him
impatient and restless.

While being in the company of his guests, Muhammad’s desire to
have sex with Zainab (or should we say ‘to torture her’), drove him
crazy. Restlessness was visible on his face, but his insensitive
guests failed to take notice of his condition.

But Allah was not insensitive like them. Having dedicated Himself
to Muhammad’s service, Allah came to his rescue and required the
three callous guests, through the above revelation, to leave
Muhammad’s house immediately, telling them simultaneously that
although their host was shy at asking them to leave him alone, but
He (Allah) was shameless, hence His directive to them.

Allah also told them that if they needed anything before leaving,
they should ask Muhammad’s wives from before a screen (‘hijab’);
for, it was good for keeping the hearts of theirs and the Prophet’s
wives pure. Taking advantage of a gathering of many guests, Allah
also asked them not to marry Muhammad’s widows after he was gone
from the earth...

A close reading of verse 33:53 makes the following points clear:

1. Allah put the responsibility for creating, and observing the
barrier (hijab) between Muhammad’s wives and his male visitors
squarely on the guests, hence the words “when ye ask (his ladies)
for anything ye want, ask them from before a screen.”

Above instruction was given to men; so, it were they, and not
Muhammad’s wives, who were responsible for creating a barrier (hijab)
in front of their eyes, before asking anything from Muhammad’s
wives. It does not say, nor imply, that Allah had required
Muhammad’s wives to go behind the screen before attending to their
male guests’ requests.

This verse also indicates that Muhammad’s wives were not in the
habit of hiding themselves behind screens or barriers, while
confronted with strange men, hence came down Allah’s instruction to
men to observe hijab in order to save their purity.

Even if, we were to believe that the instruction contained in the
verse equally applied to Muhammad’s guests and his wives, it does
not change the fact that Muhammad’s wives did not hide themselves
from men, who were not related to them through blood, until they
were made to do so by Allah by revealing the above-mentioned verse.
Otherwise, there was no reason for Allah to tell them to hide
themselves behind a screen or barrier (hijab), if they had already
been doing it!

My second thought on the verse convinces me that the requirement
of isolating women from the view of men could not have come from
Allah. It was Muhammad’s brainchild, through which he tried to
control his sexually starved wives from getting in touch with other
men in order to meet their physical needs. Whether he had succeeded
in his efforts is not known to the historians of Islam.

2. The dress (or uniform) worn by Christian nuns is, firstly,
different from hijab or veil, which Muslim women wear. And,
secondly, the Christian nuns are the women, who bind themselves by
vow to poverty, chastity and obedience and dedicate their lives to
the service of the church. In other words, they are equivalent to
male monks, hence the dress they wear to differentiate themselves
from normal Christian women.

Conversely, Muslim women do not belong to the category of nuns,
nor do they dedicate their lives to the service of their mosques or
religion. Therefore, comparing their dress code with that of
Christian nuns is a fallacy on the part of Muslim scholars and
historians.

Moreover, the word “hijab” does not mean “veil”, which Muslim
women put on their faces. Rather, as stated above, it means a
“screen” or a barrier that we often use to separate one thing from
another. Therefore, the veil that the Muslim women wear has no basis
in the Quran.

3. Verse 33:53 came down to Muhammad, when he was with his
guests, with all of his faculties functioning well. He narrated its
content to his guests for their compliance, as if angel Gabriel was
relaying it to him.

The condition under which Muhammad received his revelations from
Allah established, we will like to know why are we told that he
received them either in a state of vision or in quasi-dreams, or
when he used to sink into a deep strata of consciousness, usually
accompanied by certain physical concomitants i.e. convulsions,
followed by a deep trance?[8]
Did he feign the receipt of revelations from Allah in order to
obtain advantage over his foes, or was the story relating to the
mode of revelations was invented by latter-day Muslims to add
credibility to what Muhammad had said and preached in his lifetime?

Having spent some time, and space as well, on the background of
verse 33:53; the implication of the word ‘hijab” and on the mode in
which, Muhammad claimed, he received his revelations from Allah, I
now turn to the issues of khimar and jilbab, as we read them in the
Quran. But before taking up these issues for discussion, I need to
mention here an important “fact”, which Muslim scholars and
historians often come up with to defend Islam and the Quran. This
fact is:

Before the arrival of Islam, the Arab Pagans, according to
Allah, lived in the Times of Ignorance (Jahiliyah).[9]
They had neither a religious book to seek guidance from, nor a
prophet or apostle to advise them on the important issues of their
lives. They somehow lived their lives, without knowing anything
about good health and hygiene.

When Allah realized their situation, He sent Muhammad with the
Quran to them. Allah taught them through Muhammad and the Quran
how they should carry out their ablutions before their prayer; how
they should purify themselves after attending to the nature’s
calls or after having sex with their women. In short, Allah
introduced anything and everything to the Pagans that they did not
know about, or were not wont to practicing in their lives, as
Allah had not given them lessons on these prior to Muhammad’s
arrival in their midst.

I shall approach the issues of khimr and jilbab
from the standpoint of our understanding of the situation that, I
believe, prevailed in the Arabian Peninsula before the advent of
Islam. This, I hope, will answer satisfactorily most of the
questions many of us have on these issues.

It appears from the Quran that following the Pagan traditions,
Muhammad’s wives, even after converting to Islam, continued to
maintain a complacent tone and used seductive words in their
conversations with Muhammad's male disciples, which aroused desire
amongst them for his wives. They also moved around boisterously, and
made dazzling display of themselves in front of strangers,[10]
or before their would-be paramours.

They also did not say their Islamically mandated regular prayers;
neither did they practice charity. They disobeyed Allah and their
husband, the Prophet of Islam. On top of these, they did not ‘recite
what Muhammad rehearsed to them in their homes.’[11]

To remove all abominable things, such as these, from the lives of
Muhammad’s wives, Allah approached them directly and told them:

‘O Consorts of the Prophet! You are not like any other women
and if you fear Allah or your husband, then you will have to
change your ways of life’ so that I can cure the malaises of your
hearts.’

Whether they changed their manners, or Allah was able to cure
their malaises is not recorded in the Quran.

To Allah, Muhammad’s wives were like queens; hence, Allah has
used the word “Consorts” in their honor!

After admonishing Muhammad’s wives, or queens, for their
un-Islamic acts and urging them to behave like respectable women,
Allah turned His attention to other believing women of Muhammad’s
era and told them what we read in verse 24:31.

For understanding the full import of Allah’s commandment to
Muslim women, we must find out whether the word “veil” (khimar
in Arabic) used in the English rendering of the above verse is
correct or not. Here are my findings:

Three of the five English translations I have read,[12]
have the word “veil” in them. One translator has used the phrase
“head-coverings,”[13]
instead of veil. According to this translator, Muslim women were
required to wear their head-coverings over their bosoms. Another
translator[14]
used the word “shawls” which Muslim women should wear over their
bosoms.

It is clear from these examples that the use of the word “veil”
in English translations of the verse is correct, even though some
translators have used different words in their translations to
convey the same sense as does the word “veil,” its literal meaning
being: “a piece of cloth or mesh material” that can be used to hide
or cover something.

In my understanding, the khimar or the veil Allah spoke of
in verse 24:31 is what is known as orhni or odhani used by the women
of the Indian sub-continent. Also known as dupatta, it is a
diaphanous piece of cloth that they use mostly to cover their
breasts. This illustration should make clear how a veil or dupatta
looks like, and how it is worn by most Muslim and non-Muslim women
of the Indian sub-continent:

With the picture of veil or khimar clear to us, we must try to
find out why Allah asked the women of Muhammad’s time to veil, cover
or hide their bosoms, if they were already doing that in their pagan
days?

The answer to the question can be deduced from the following
assumption: the Pagan women of pre-Islamic days did not cover or
hide their bosoms with an extra piece of cloth: the khimr.
Their historic tradition continued to be present in Muslim societies
due, firstly, to the lack of an Islamic injunction on the matter,
and secondly, on account of their economic conditions. Muslim women
began to cover their bosoms with khimar or dupatta (Indian word)
only after Allah told them to do so. Prior to the revelation of
verse 24:31, Muslim women did not cover their bosoms.

With this situation in mind, I would now want to briefly discuss
the content of verse 24:31, not only to point out what it really
means, but also to see if it supports my contention, as outlined in
the foregoing paragraphs.

The verse says, “… that they should draw their veils over their
bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their
fathers” and so on. To understand the implication of this statement,
we must note, first, what relationship a female’s bosoms have with
her beauty.

It is said that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. I feel no
hesitation in asserting that a female body is the finest artistry of
nature. At least for a man, every part of her body—be
it her feet, legs, gait, hands, bosoms, neck, voice, eyes, face or
hair—exudes beauty.

But neglecting almost all the above important components of a
female body, many of us often deem a woman to be beautiful only when
she appears before us with a beautiful face. True, a female face is
the focal point of man’s attraction, but it does not create in him
as much sexual arousal as does her two nicely shaped breasts.

It is this reason that remains at the back of a sculptor’s minds,
when he/she fashions a sculpture of a female body with a pair of
beautiful-looking bosoms incorporated in his or her creation. The
contours of a beautiful face create an ever lasting impact on the
minds of its viewers. A pair of artistically designed bosoms, added
to the beautiful face, creates intense attraction in the minds of
most men.

Obviously, for this reason, many women take the trouble to go to
extra miles to get their breasts clinically enhanced or enlarged;
they do it not for the sake of fun, but to be more attractive to the
eyes of men. Well-sized attractive bosoms also make the male partner
easily aroused, and sexually more potent, helping a more satisfying
copulation. In contrast, many women, who do not have attractive
bosoms, or the means to make them artificially attractive, not only
end up having problems with their men, such couples also miss the
pleasure of copulation to its best.

Allah, the engineer of both and women, was obviously aware of
this aspect of human sexuality. He, therefore, prohibited Muslim
women from exposing their bosoms before strangers. He required them
to keep their beauty and the shape of their bosoms covered with an
extra piece of cloth, not only from strangers, but also from many
other close relatives, mentioned in the verse. How the Muslim women
were to hide their facial beauty is not clearly mentioned in the
Quran.

Allah was also aware that exposed bosoms aroused sexual desires
in men; He therefore, asked Muslim men to “lower their gaze and
guard their modesty” in order to protect their manly purity from
being soiled by lust.

Before closing this discussion on the use of veil or khimar by
Muslim women, and taking up the question of jilbab or burqa, let me
emphasize that since most Muslim women of our time wear dresses that
hide their bosoms from others’ sight, the Quranic stipulation on
veiling the upper part of their bodies with a piece of cloth has
lost its purpose. Therefore, Muslims should neither insist upon
wearing of veils by their women, nor should they pay attention
to what the Quran says about it. This will obviously make their
lives easier and free from unnecessary tension.

Let us now ask: What about burqa and headscarf that many
Muslim women wear these days?

I have noted earlier that it is the responsibility of Muslim men
to create a barrier (hijab) between them and the women they are
about to talk to, or in whose company, they are about to find
themselves in. But, they will never able to comply with this
requirement of Allah. Instead, they continued to molest, mostly, the
former slave-women, in spite of their conversion to Islam. The
susceptibility to sexual assaults on women by the Pagan-turned rowdy
Muslims increased manifold on the streets of Medina, especially in
the darkness of night. Under the compulsion of this habit, they not
only molested or tried to molest the women of higher status, they
even molested, or tried to molest, the wives of Muhammad. To protect
women of higher status as well as the wives of the Prophet, Allah
decreed:

“O Prophet! Tell thy wives and daughters, and the believing
women, that they should cast their outer garments over their
persons (when abroad): that is most convenient, that they should
be known (as such) and not molested: and Allah is Oft-Forgiving,
Most Merciful.”[15]

Two facts come out of the above verse:

Muslim women, including
Muhammad’s wives, were asked to cast their outer garments (jilbab),
like the dupatta worn by women of the Indian sub-continent, over
their persons at home and before going out of their homes.

This was necessary for
them to indicate to the would-be molesters that they were free
women of high status and that some of them were the wives of
Muhammad. It did not matter to Allah if the Muslim female slaves
faced molestation from their Muslim brethren. The form or the
shape of the jilbab, nor the material with which it was made or to
be made, is not mentioned in the verse.

While the former slave-turned Muslim women continued to suffer at
the hand of their Muslim “brothers’” physical attacks,[16]
despite wearing an outer garment over their bodies to distinguish
themselves from slave-women, most of their Muslim masters gradually
became financially well off, thanks to plunders they perpetrated
upon the Jews under the command and leadership of the Prophet of
Islam. Now, they were able to buy fabrics and other things, which
they could not afford before, from markets in Syria and other
countries to which the Arabs had been sending caravans since ages
before the advent of Islam.

Eventually, Muslim masters of the women-slaves devised a means to
protect them from their molesters’ attacks. It was burqa that not
only hid their faces from being seen by the would-be assailants, it
also helped them hide their physical features inside. An onlooker
can never find out what lies inside a burqa!

The black color of the fabrics, used in making burqa then, helped
its wearer blend well with the darkness of night, thus enabling them
to evade would-be attackers. This color has since become almost
universal: today, if not all, almost all the burqas are made of
black cloth, worn mostly by suppressed Muslim women of the world.

Headscarf became a part of Muslim women’s Islamic dress when
Spain and some other European territories fell into Muslim hands.
Worn by Christian Nuns in Europe, its adoption by Muslim
women was intended to make an equivalent religious statement of
their own. Its introduction amongst European Muslim women was also
necessitated, perhaps, by their refusal to wear bulky burqas, which
their sisters-in-faith used to wear elsewhere in the Muslim world.
Hence the headscarves are in extensive use mainly by the white
Muslim women today.

The gist of my discussion on hijab (veil), khimar (a piece of
cloth) and jilbab (outer garment or burqa) is the following:

Khimar is a piece of cloth Muslim women need to cover their
bosoms with, when they are inside their homes; hijab is a screen or
barrier[17],
behind which unrelated men should hide themselves while talking to
Muslim women. Muslim women can also hide themselves behind hijab, if
they want to avoid the gaze of men at them.[18]
Jilbab is a body-covering Muslim women are required to wear at home
and outside of it. That fact that, young Muslim women at home are
also required to shield their bodies from the eyes of the young men
of the house as well as of Allah with the help of a cloth, is also
evident from verse 24:60. In it, Allah has clearly stated: “Such
elderly women as are past the prospect of marriage; there is no
blame on them if they lay aside their outer garments,[19]
provided they make not a wanton display of their beauty:[20]
but it is best for them to be modest: and Allah is One Who sees and
knows all things.” The form of the jilbab (burqa) that is used by
Muslim women today to cover themselves from head to toe has no
sanction in the Quran.

There is no provision in the Quran that requires Muslim women to
wear headscarf when they are outside of their homes. It is a
concept, which European Muslim women had borrowed from Christian
nuns. It is not Islamic; therefore, has no Islamic value or
importance.

[1] Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The Holy Quran, vol. 2,
p. 904.
[2] The word “beauty” that appears in the verse with the word
“ornaments” is an addition of the translator; he has done this to
force Muslim women into covering themselves by a head to toe cloak,
or burqa. It is evident from the translations of other translators.
They have not used this word in their translations.
[3] The Quran; 33:53.
[4] The Quran; 33:59.
[5] Maulvi Muhammad Naimuddin, Quranul Majid, p. 616.
[6] The Quran; 85:21-22.
[7] Maulvi Muhammad Naimuddin; Quran Majid, p. 616.
[8] Fazlur Rahman; Islam, p. 13.
[9] The Quran; 33:33.
[10] The Quran; 33:32-33.
[11] The Quran; 33:34.
[12] Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall and N. J.
Dawood.
[13] M. H. Shakir.
[14] Dr. T. B. Irving.
[15] The Quran; 33:59.
[16] Cf. Tafsir al-Jalalayn’s commentary on verse 33:59.
[17] Cf. The Quran; 42:51 where it is stated that Allah speaks to
man from behind a veil.
[18] Cf. The Quran; 19:17.
[19] According to Mududi, the literal translation should have been
‘if they lay aside their clothes.’
[20] It is the adornment or ornaments, and not beauty that Allah has
spoken of here.